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Election abuses are feared in Zimbabwe unless the country’s new constitution is passed first, according to a report saying rights advocates are facing harassment, intimidation, and reprisals from the Mugabe regime.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, centre right, inspects the presidential guard on Oct. 30 during the opening in Harare of the last session of the country's current parliament.
(JEKESAI NJIKIZANA / AFP)

When human rights activist Cynthia Manjoro loaned her car to her brother for a shopping trip, the last thing she expected was to land in jail on a murder charge.

But in President Robert Mugabe’s brutally repressive Zimbabwe, little has changed for the pro-democracy movement since a 2008 peace deal with the opposition led to a power-sharing government that was meant to reform the battered country.

As Zimbabwe faces a referendum on the constitution and a new election in 2013, human rights activists still suffer “acute acts of harassment, intimidation and reprisals,” says a report released Monday by two international rights groups.

It documents “repeated arbitrary arrests and detentions, judicial harassment and acts of torture and ill-treatment, as well as obstacles to exercising right to freedom of association, expression and peaceful assembly,”

Manjoro, a longtime human rights activist and national program manager of Zimrights, is a case in point. While recovering from the birth of a baby in May 2011, she was arrested after a police officer was murdered in a local shopping centre where the car she had loaned her brother was spotted.

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After interrogation about her human rights work, she was put in a “dirty, smelly (solitary) cell filled with lice,” kept in leg irons and denied visitors for 59 days before being released on bail.

Months later, in March 2012 she was indicted for murder — along with more than 25 other activists — and jailed again for seven months before being freed on bail in October pending trial.

“Almost four years after the political agreement, and despite repeated calls from the international community, the situation of human rights defenders in Zimbabwe remains extremely perilous,” said the report.

And it warns that a new constitution must be approved as soon as possible to ensure that human rights are protected before new elections are held. It calls on Zimbabwe’s government to bring rights violators to justice, reform the security and justice system and remove repressive laws. The UN should send a special rapporteur to investigate its progress, it said.

In 2008, a campaign of terror against opposition supporters, and widespread vote-rigging, caused international outrage and led to the current power sharing deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.

In the run up to the election, tens of thousands of people were displaced in land seizures, about 400 were dead or missing, hundreds were subjected to arrest, torture and detention and aid groups were barred from distributing food or medical help.

Zimbabwe’s economy was also destroyed, with inflation reaching historic proportions and malnutrition rife. But after the peace deal, and the adoption of U.S. currency in 2009, inflation was brought under control, and the economy stabilized.

Three years later, the report says, Mugabe is still in control, making key appointments, ruling with an iron hand, and calling for a new election before a referendum on the constitution can be held.

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has refused to take part in any new elections until the reforms that were part of the power-sharing deal have been put in place. With Mugabe still in charge, however, it’s likely that elections will go ahead.

According to the watchdog group Global Witness, Mugabe’s ZANU PF party has been seeking “off-budget financing for the military and secret police,” to maintain control. Unless there is accountability, it warns, “there is real danger of a shadow security state emerging, with both a monopoly on violence and secret sources of funding.”

If elections go ahead, there are fears that pro-democracy and opposition groups will be unable to take part. “Political violence, lack of respect for the rule of law and human rights violations remain a serious concern in Zimbabwe,” the human rights report said.

“Human rights defenders, including NGO members, journalists, trade unionists, and lawyers are once again suffering the brunt of violations of their rights, including intimidation, arrests and other hindrances (to) their work.”

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